House Votes To Reform Corrections Intelligence

An officer escorts an inmate through the Baltimore City Detention Center in November, 2013. (WBAL file photo)

Maryland's corrections department is pushing for a law that would make official the new structure of its prison intelligence operations.

The House unanimously passed the bill Thursday morning. The Senate has already approved its own similar bill, but this still leaves some administrative steps before it becomes law.

The bills are a response to the indictments of 27 Baltimore correctional officers last year at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

Before the indictments, each prison had its own intelligence department, independent from the state's main investigative unit, said Mark Carter, the investigative unit's director. Carter says these groups were failing to share important information. So the administration unified them into a statewide team.

The new bills formally establish this team's authority and make it the only department that reports directly to the corrections secretary.